The present invention relates to a projectile for combatting a tank from above, the projectile including a warhead and a control unit which rotates relative to the warhead during flight and which contains a search head for detecting a target and for causing the projectile to be directed toward the target.
In such a projectile, as disclosed in German Application P 3,603,497.5, corresponding to U.S. Pat. Application Ser. No. 07/018,567, filed Feb. 4th, 1987 by Grosswendt et al, the entire subject matter which is incorporated herein by reference, the rotating control unit may cause gyro effects during the flying maneuver to convert the projectile from the traveling phase to the rotating-descending phase and these gyro effects may result in undesirable influences on the trajectory. In this connection, it is considered to be a drawback that, in addition to the desired large pitch angles, undesirable, large yaw angles and lateral displacements of the projectile inevitably occur. The term lateral displacement is here understood to mean the lateral deviation of the projectile in the target. In the past, it had been attempted to reduce yaw angles and deviations by employing a lead yaw angle, with such a lead yaw angle being formed by an angle between the sensor picking up the target and a pulse actuated charge. However, the relationship between the mechanically caused yaw angle and the aerodynamic reaction to it in the form of a lateral displacement is not linear and therefore only difficult to calculate. Moreover, different starting conditions, such as, for example, different target distances, target heights, final velocities, etc., must be considered when the projectile changes over to the rotating-descending phase so that it is generally impossible to reduce yaw angles and lateral displacements to a minimum or prevent them from occurring at all if only one lead yaw angle is employed for all target distances.